Usb 3.0 on an old motherboard.

The third version of the USB standard was finally adopted in 2008. Then the development companies, which included Intel, NEC, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard, agreed on the final specification. The new standard was compatible with USB connectors 2.0 and allowed the correct use of devices that corresponded to it. In addition, the throughput of the connection was significantly increased. Now the transfer rate was 600 megabytes per second. The changes also affected the current strength: it was increased to 900 mA.

It seemed that high-speed devices would soon appear. Files will be copied 10 (!) times faster, which means flash drives and external hard drives become much more convenient to use. But in 2009, data appeared that one of the world's leading manufacturers, Intel, was not planning a mass implementation of USB 3.0 support in chipsets until early 2011. There is a strange situation: there is a standard, but there are practically no motherboards with its support.

Meanwhile at the market computer technology devices capable of working with USB 3.0 began to flicker more and more often. At the same time, a number of manufacturers have motherboards with an appropriate controller only in the higher price range. What if you want to use high speeds, but there is no port on the computer? It turns out there is a workaround.

The need for invention is cunning, or how to get USB ports without a USB controller

The point is that there is port PCI Express , which provides sufficient bandwidth compared to USB ports. And at the same time, such connectors are available on almost any motherboard, regardless of model, cost and release date. Of course, if you do not consider very outdated devices, with a couple of decades of active use for the benefit of the owner. The reason is that this connector has become actively used to install graphics cards. Accordingly, manufacturers cannot ignore it. This means that there is a high probability of finding a free PCI-e slot on the motherboard. Especially if the integrated graphics subsystem is used.

It remains to solve the problem of transferring a free PCI Express connector to convenient and affordable USB ports with support for the 3.0 standard. Of course, no one will manually solder the adapter - the times are not the same. Yes, and complexity. technological process no longer allows you to cope with such tasks at home with minimal training and a soldering iron. But you can purchase the corresponding device in the online store.

As a rule, it is a board installed in a PCI Express slot. It has a controller that provides the functioning of the USB connectors. In this case, there are usually a couple of exits, which, after installation, are on the back side. system block. Actually, installing a USB 3.0 PCIe adapter allows you to immediately resolve the issue.

Pitfalls of the most comfortable way

But there are also some inconveniences. Often the system unit is installed in such a way that the outputs on the rear side become inaccessible. Or, in order to get close to them, you need to regularly push it from its usual place. Therefore, the best option would be output of USB 3.0 connectors on the front face of the unit. For example, using a special panel that has one or more USB ports of the third version.

To implement such a setup, you need to find USB 3.0 controller with corresponding internal connector. Then it remains only to stretch the wire from the expansion board to the front panel with ports inside the case. But here lies one insidious moment. The fact is that the connecting connectors of the adapter and the panel with USB ports can be designed for use various types cable. For example, the internal connector is different from the standard external output. So special attention must be paid to taking exactly the components that correspond to each other.

A good option would be to purchase a ready-made kit. In this case, the component manufacturer guarantees the possibility of connecting the panel to the adapter. Naturally, the cost in this case may differ upwards.

Deceptive simplicity

At first glance, the solution is simple and elegant. But you need to understand that not everything is simple with PCI Express slots. Sometimes there are two of them on the motherboard, and one is occupied by the video card. It seems that you can safely use the second one to install the adapter. But sometimes it turns out that the second connector only formally complies with the PCI Express standard. But in fact, the speed of such a slot is much less. This means that data transfer via the USB port will be limited. Not everyone can understand the intricacies of the motherboard device. So for USB 3.0 adapter installation in a free slot, it is better to contact a competent specialist. Then you won't have to watch with chagrin how the standard 3.0 port works at the speed of a regular USB 2.0 output.

The situation with USB 3.0 is still complicated today. Of course, the benefits are undeniable - the interface provides up to 10X faster speeds than USB 2.0, controllers are unlikely to be more expensive for large volumes, and backwards compatibility is also provided - but it will be some time before USB 3.0 becomes really mainstream. We have already tested USB 3.0 flash keyfobs , external USB 3.0 accessories for 2.5" hard drives, considered different implementations of USB 3.0 support on motherboards and also tested several external drives USB 3.0 As one might expect, hard drives can now work without bottlenecks, that is, the infrastructure is ready to support speeds of 300-400 MB / s.

Intel is waiting

One of the biggest players in the market decided not to add a USB 3.0 controller to the next generation of chipsets. The successor to the P55 line, codenamed Cougar Point, with a slightly modified LGA 1155 socket (one pin less, canceling compatibility) will support 14 USB 2.0 ports, but there is no Superspeed USB 3.0 support. Although such a decision remains a mystery to most users, it does make sense from an economic standpoint: Intel waited for ICH4 in 2002 to add USB 2.0 support, although the company implemented USB support 1.1 quite early in the late 90s, but it did not bring much success. Since the addition of USB 3.0 root controllers is going to be a major design change and the market won't transition from USB 2.0 to 3.0 in a few months, it really makes sense for Intel to stay conservative - though of course most of us would clearly prefer a more aggressive strategy since the LGA socket 1155 can last longer than LGA 1156.

New controllers

Several companies are currently working on USB 3.0 controllers, namely Asmedia (Asus), Texas Instruments and VIA. We believe that all three companies will present their solutions before the end of the year, and we hope that different implementations will increase competition in this market. Today, NEC is the only supplier of USB 3.0 controllers, so their prices remain too high for the mass distribution of controllers - as a result, low-cost motherboards will not be equipped with USB 3.0 support anytime soon.

Options?

On the this moment you have two options for adding USB 3.0 support: either buy a motherboard with a USB 3.0 controller and two ports, or look for an add-on card that uses the same NEC PD720200 controller. There are also Express Cards that use the same NEC PD720200 but add USB 3.0 support to laptops. Please note that all cards require a x1 PCI Express slot that complies with the PCI Express 2.0 specification. This means that high-speed USB 3.0 solutions will run into a bottleneck if cards/controllers operate in PCIe 1.1 slots that are limited to 250MB/s up and down. This applies to all Intel platforms that have additional PCIe interfaces brought out through south bridges, as well as older PCI Express systems. If today this is not such a problem, the situation may worsen in the future.

Asus Crosshair IV Formula (NEC PD720200)

Click on the picture to enlarge.

Asus Crosshair IV Formula is the top motherboard for AMD processors Socket AM3, including models from the Athlon II X2 up to the six-core Phenom II X6, which offers the best performance for the money today. The motherboard uses AMD's latest 890FX chipset with the SB850 southbridge. Like all other products in our review, it is based on the well-known NEC controller located close to the ATX panel, while providing two USB port 3.0. The fee also provides USB ports 2.0 provided by the chipset's USB 2.0 controller, so if you need USB interface 3.0, then connect the plug to the blue ports.

We found that this motherboard's USB 3.0 implementation is quite fast, with the integrated controller reaching 150 MB/s. However, if you take an expansion card and install it, you'll get better speeds: we measured 172 MB/s with the WD expansion card and 173 MB/s with the Gigabyte card. All other solutions, both integrated and with expansion cards, were limited to between 113 and 168 MB / s, so the difference is quite significant. We will not delve into the implementation of controller support on the motherboard, since the shortcomings are clearly visible. Add-on cards seem to be better able to benefit from a PCIe connection, as all of the 890 chipset's PCIe lanes are fully PCI Express 2.0 compliant.

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Gigabyte P55A-UD6 and UD7 (NEC PD720200)

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Gigabyte is very aggressive in promoting USB 3.0 controllers on its motherboards for the enthusiast and upper end of the mainstream market. During Computex, the company made it clear that it wanted to be the leader in USB 3.0 adoption. Two motherboards based on the P55 chipset, namely the P55A-UD6 and UD7, can be considered clear evidence of this. If the UD6 motherboard has USB 3.0 support via the NEC controller, you need to enable the Turbo option in the BIOS to get full performance - otherwise the system will give all the PCI Express 2.0 lanes to the graphics card. However, this implementation still gives a throughput of only 113 MB / s and the lowest I / O performance.

Click on the picture to enlarge.
The P55A-UD7 motherboard uses a PCI Express switch that distributes the available PCIe 2.0 lanes across different slots. Click on the picture to enlarge.

The second Gigabyte P55A-UD7 motherboard uses a more flexible implementation. The PCI Express 2.0 lanes are provided through a PLX switch, which works like an Ethernet switch: the available bandwidth is dynamically allocated to the devices that request it. As a result, we got maximum performance 168 MB / s, which is almost as fast as in the case of the motherboard asus boards Crosshair IV Formula with an external controller, and parallel read and write operations are performed at the same speed. The Gigabyte USB 3.0 expansion card provided significantly lower IOPS performance on the P55A-UD7. In this case, the integrated solution gives clearly better performance.

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Gigabyte USB 3.0 Expansion Card (NEC PD720200)

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Click on the picture to enlarge.

Gigabyte's USB 3.0 Expansion Card is one of many third-party PCI Express solutions that allow you to add USB 3.0 support to virtually any computer with PCI Express slots. Best to install this card and all similar solutions into a slot with PCIe 2.0 support, but even PCIe 1.1 slots can provide much higher speed USB ports than USB 2.0. We chose to test this expansion card only on the Asus Crosshair IV Formula motherboard, but we also used a Western Digital kit with a different design expansion card on Gigabyte motherboards to avoid over testing. V similar system the card provided the highest throughput, although not the highest performance in the concurrent read/write scenario, but I/O performance was above average.

Western Digital MyBook 3.0 Kit with expansion card (NEC PD720200)

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The final product in our testing consists of an external 1TB hard drive and an expansion card with an NEC controller in the box that allows desktop PCs to be upgraded to USB 3.0 support when equipped with PCI Express slots. Again, the controller is the same here, with the expansion card delivering the same performance as gigabyte card USB 3.0 However, in this case we got a slightly longer access time, but for external drives this is not so important.

Click on the picture to enlarge.

Unfortunately, this controller didn't give the best throughput on both Gigabyte motherboards. Depending on the configuration, we got from 128 to 145 MB / s - and this difference cannot be explained by the differences between the PCI Express 1.1 and 2.0 slots. We got better results on the P55A-UD7 motherboard with PCI Express 1.1 interface. The exception with this motherboard was the integrated NEC USB 3.0 controller, which was faster than the WD expansion card.

However, the combination of high-speed hard USB disk 3.0, which works as fast as if it was directly connected to the system, as well as expansion cards with a USB 3.0 controller in the box, it still makes sense today.

Test drive: Super Talent RAIDDrive 64GB (USB 3.0)

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We have already carried out Super Talent RAIDDrive tests a few weeks ago - today it is still one of the fastest USB 3.0 drives. Thanks to its internal RAID configuration, it can achieve speeds up to 177MB/s, benefiting from the speedy USB 3.0 interface. The speed is really high, but the USB stick gets quite hot.

Test hardware

Hardware
CPU AMD I	AMD Phenom II X6 1090T (45nm, 3.2GHz, 6x 512KB L2 Cache & 6MB L3 Cache, 125W TDP, Rev. C3)
Motherboard (Socket AMD3)	Asus Crosshair IV Formula (Rev. 1.0), chipset: AMD 890FX, BIOS: 0701 (04/02/2010)
CPU Intel	Intel Core i5-750 (45 nm, 2.66 GHz, 2x 256 KB L2 cache and 8 MB L3 cache, TDP 95 W, Rev. B1)
Motherboard (Socket LGA1156)	Gigabyte P55A-UD7 (Rev. 1.0), chipset: P55, BIOS: F3
DDR3 memory	2x 2GB DDR3-1333 (OCZ3G2000LV4GK 8-8-8-24)
HDD	Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500 GB, ST3500320AS, 7200 rpm, SATA/300, 32 MB cache
USB 3.0 storage	Super Talent RAIDDrive 64GB USB 3.0
USB 3.0 controller	USB 3.0: NEC D720200F1
video card	Sapphire Radeon HD 5850, GPU: Cypress (725 MHz), Graphics Memory: 1024 MB GDDR5 (2000 MHz), stream processors: 1440
Power Supply	PC Power & Cooling, Silencer 750EPS12V 750W
System software and drivers
Operating system	Windows 7 Ultimate

Tests and settings

Test results

The interface performance test allows you to evaluate the maximum throughput. As you can see, both expansion cards provide the best performance when installed in a system with AMD chipset 890FX and the SB850 southbridge, which provides full-fledged PCI Express 2.0 lanes. Two motherboards based on the Intel chipset, namely models from the Gigabyte P55A series, provide only PCI Express 1.1 lanes for expansion cards, or 2.0 lanes if you choose to use one of the physical x16 slots. The built-in controller on the Gigabyte P55A-UD6 motherboard is disappointing, but the switched solution on the UD7, on the other hand, is viable.

Here we see a different situation: if you are doing reads and writes in parallel, then the best performance will be observed on the Gigabyte P55A-UD6 motherboard with a WD expansion card, followed by the integrated controller on Asus UD7 and Crosshair IV Formula motherboards. Although we do not want to focus on this, but the expansion cards in this case turned out to be a little slower.

Access time is not very important for external drives, but, as we found, PCI Express 2.0 solutions are slightly faster.

For some reason, both Gigabyte platforms weren't the best environment for a Western Digital expansion card in a file server I/O scenario - they both produced significantly lower I/O results with this card.

Gigabyte's integrated solutions weren't the best for the web server scenario. In this case, expansion cards proved to be the best, even if this test is hardly of practical value.

In the workstation scenario, we see the opposite of the file server scenario: the WD expansion card on Gigabyte motherboards is the best - proving that performance can vary significantly depending on the type of workload.

Conclusion

You probably thought that identical host controllers provide the same performance - as is the case with storage controllers integrated into chipsets. However, existing USB 3.0 implementations can give different performance for two reasons: on the one hand, there may be differences in drivers and firmware, and on the other hand, performance depends on how the controller is connected to the host system.

Expansion cards can run into old PCI Express interfaces, and this is typical for almost all systems based on Intel chipsets, whose PCI Express 2.0 lanes are provided only graphical interfaces. If you install an expansion card in a PCIe 1.1 slot, then you may encounter bandwidth limitations. However, this is not always observed. We got the lowest throughput of 133 MB / s from the motherboard Gigabyte boards P55A-UD6 with an integrated NEC USB 3.0 controller, as well as the highest throughput of the Asus Crosshair IV Formula motherboard with PCIe 2.0 expansion cards from Gigabyte or Western Digital. The combined read and write throughput was the highest for expansion cards with sufficient throughput, as well as the integrated Gigabyte P55A-UD7 controller, which benefits from PCI Express switching.

As a result, we cannot unequivocally speak out "for" or "against" PCI Express 2.0 expansion cards for USB 3.0. They provide enough performance for modern devices such as Super Talent's RAIDDrive. But we highly recommend installing these cards in "real" PCI Express 2.0 slots, as this will give you the best performance. If you want to purchase a motherboard with an integrated USB 3.0 controller, then you should check out motherboard reviews that include USB 3.0 performance tests, as some designs, such as the use of a switch on the Gigabyte P55A-UD7 motherboard, give much better USB performance. 3.0 than the same UD6 model.

In addition, it is quite reasonable to buy a set of a hard drive and an expansion card with a controller, such as the WD MyBook 3.0. Until now, all products are based on the NEC controller, and, fortunately, we have not come across a frankly bad implementation.

Several times I received similar questions in the mail: "Please tell us about USB external controllers." Sometimes readers refer to them as a "usb 3 adapter", although that's exactly what a "controller" is.

We will probably do this: we will give more theory in the first part of this article, and we will test the transfer speed of the PCI USB controller and give specific numbers in the second part.

So, today we will talk about the Usb 3 pci express controller from Transcend, which I recently installed in my already outdated home computer in order to be able to feel all the benefits of the new USB 3.0 interface.

Here is such a Pci Express fee extensions:

I ordered it through the online store, and this "miracle" cost me only 15 dollars! The USB 3 adapter itself looks like this:

First, let's talk a little about theory, and then, as always, move on to practical tests and measurements. The abbreviation USB itself translates as Universal Serial Bus - “universal serial bus". It is a serial data interface for medium speed and low speed peripherals.

Of course, with modern USB 3 and its speed of 100 megabytes per second, it is difficult to call it even medium-speed, but we will return to real speed measurements.

For now, let's take a quick look at the interface specifications and revisions that currently exist.

The USB 1 specification appeared in 1996. It has two modes of operation and some other characteristics:

• low-bandwidth mode (Low-Speed) - 1.5 Mbps
• high bandwidth mode (Full-Speed) - 12 Mbps
• supply voltage for connected devices - 5 Volts
• the maximum current that can be consumed by the connected device is 500 mA

An interface with similar characteristics is found in old computers of level 1 - 1.2 Gigahertz (we have a lot of them at work) :) And when you connect, for example, a faster flash drive to such a connector, we will see an inscription that this device can run faster.

The USB 2 specification was released in April 2000. There are three modes of operation for its end devices:

• Low-speed (low speed), 10-1500 Kbps (keyboards, mice, joysticks)
• Full-speed (full speed) 0.5-12 Mbps (audio, video devices)
• High-speed (high speed) 25-480 Mbps (video devices, storage devices)
• the maximum current consumed by the end device is also 500 mA

For example, here's what the "power" tab looks like in the device manager for a regular flash drive:

We make sure that the maximum power of the USB 2.0 port is 500 milliamps, and 200 mA is allocated for the flash drive itself.

And here is a screenshot for my USB mouse:

We see that this device gets 100 mA.

On the next "advanced" tab, we can see the interface bandwidth and its utilization factor:

While USB 2.0 has a peak throughput of 480Mbps (60MB/s), in practice we won't get anywhere close to that! In the best case, it will be possible to achieve half the declared speed (60 MB / s). This, again, is the best! This disgrace is partly due to the rather large delays of the USB bus itself between the request for data transfer and the actual start of the transfer.

We will dwell on the characteristics of the new specification 3.0 in more detail, as we will consider our Pci Usb controller, which works according to it.

Here, by the way, what the installed controller looks like on my work computer:

As you can see from the photo above, I installed the USB controller in a free Pci Express x16 slot, which is used for. Why is that? If you take a close look at the delivery box of our adapter (the first photo of this article), you will notice the inscription "PCI Express 2.0" there. And if we connect our usb 3 board to the Pci Express x1 connector, we can get a speed limit imposed by this interface itself (x1).

Therefore, for the purity of the experiment, I installed the expansion board exactly as shown in the photo above. By the way, now this usb 3 adapter is installed in my home computer into one of the two Pci Express x16 slots that my motherboard has. I do not use merging of video cards, so the first graphics slot is occupied by the video card, and the second one is occupied by this controller.

Important! Do not forget to connect additional power (Sata or "molex") to the controller from your .

Let's move on! And now let's talk a little about connectors and connection cables. Probably many people know that the USB 3.0 specification itself was finally formed back in 2008. Another thing is that this technology has reached the mass consumer relatively recently.

In the USB 3.0 specification, the updated standard's connectors and cables are physically and functionally compatible with previous version 2.0. For visual identification, they are usually made of blue plastic. Here, for example, how it might look on new motherboards:

Red in the photo indicates the new connection connectors.

Although, color coding is not mandatory. If we talk about the supply voltage of the USB bus, then it also remained unchanged (+5 V).

Speaking of connectors, the standard provides for a wide variety of their types and form factors. The most common are shown in the photo below.

Photo - clickable:

I would like to tell a small case from my practice in order to add some variety to our story. I remember how at work we could not install drivers for a USB 3G modem on a new laptop bought by one of the directors. We connected it, the device seemed to be determined, we install the drivers (and those that worked 100% before) and we get some incomprehensible errors. The installation process is interrupted!

It turned out that we hurriedly plugged our modem into the blue connector and until we moved it to the old standard (2.0) socket, the modem did not work! So keep this moment firmly in mind: theory is theory, but practice is power! :)

Now let's talk about speed. The USB 3.0 specification raises the maximum transfer rate to 5 Gbps (gigabits per second).

Note: Do not confuse megabits Mbps and megabytes Mbps Divide/multiply the number by "8" to convert one value to another. For example: 100 megabits = 12.5 megabytes. For the future, you can use two programs.

Version 3.0 features not only a higher data transfer rate, but also an increased current strength from 500 mA (milliamps) to 900 mA. Thus, more devices can be powered from one hub. Or - save the USB devices themselves from separate power supplies. I don’t know if it will actually work out, but in theory it sounds good :)

As we remember, the transfer rate for the USB 3.0 interface is 5 Gb / s (five gigabits per second) or 640 MB / s (megabytes per second). BUT, this is exactly interface speed rather than the actual data transfer from the flash memory chips. In practice, everything is much more modest :) Remember, we have already analyzed such nuances, where we touched on operating modes and SATA speeds interfaces?

To illustrate our point, let's say that NEC introduced its new USB 3.0 controller in 2012, which transfers 500 megabytes of data in 4.4 seconds at a speed of "only" 113.6 MB / s.

Separately, I would like to raise the issue of an extension cable for USB 3. In our "village", it is unreasonably expensive (1.5 meters of cable cost me eight dollars)!

By the way, my home 3.0 cable is black.

Its maximum allowable length is not specified in the USB 3.0 specifications, but no more than 3 meters is recommended. The original design of such a cable, developed by Intel, involved the use of optical fiber to transmit data at SuperSpeed ​​speeds. In the final version of the new standard, instead of fiber optics, nevertheless, they decided to use copper wires.

The next important difference between the USB 3.0 specification and 2.0 is that the standard provides for bidirectional data transfer over different twisted pairs. Thus, there are more contacts in version 3.0 connectors. Accordingly, the number of wires in the USB cable itself has also increased.

In the 2.0 standard, one twisted pair was used for receiving / transmitting data, and the other for power, that is, there were four pins in the USB 2.0 connectors, and the cable itself contained four wires.

In the USB 3.0 specification, the first twisted pair is used for data transmission, the second for receiving data, the third for power, and for compatibility with the previous 2.0 standard, a fourth twisted pair is provided, through which data is received / transmitted in USB mode 2.0 (Hi-Speed, Full-Speed ​​and Low-Speed).

In addition, there is one more “ground” (GND_DRAIN) in the form of a braid of two twisted pair. Therefore, the USB 3.0 cable does not have four wires (as in 2.0), but eight. And in the blue 3.0 connectors themselves, there are at least nine pins (twisted pair braids are connected to the GND_DRAIN pin).

Now let's talk a little about the support of the "new" interface in operating systems from Microsoft. Native (native) it is only for Windows systems 8. It has its support by default. For OS of earlier generations, manufacturers of equipment and Pci Usb controllers develop special drivers.

This became quite clear when I tried to install with external USB on the new laptop OS Windows 7. Moreover, I specifically connected the device to the blue USB 3 connector. I assumed that the system would not even be able to boot, but, to my surprise, I saw the start window Windows installation 7, but after clicking on the "install" button, the OS reported that it could not find the driver and stopped the installation.

And interestingly, the mouse connected to this USB port did not work (it was not even powered). She did not earn even after operating system was established. The power caught fire only as a result of the "manual" installation of the driver for the USB 3.0 controller on . Naturally, ports 2.0 worked immediately by default.

What do I want to say with such examples? Always keep in mind what is behind this or that interface or technology? Which standard controller is responsible for one or another terminal connection connector?

Familiar just now installed Windows 7, mindlessly pokes a flash drive into the blue connector and asks: "Why doesn't it work?". - "What color is the connector?" - I ask. - "Who cares...?" And what's your answer? None, keep trying! :)

I invite you to the next part of the article devoted to testing.

With the advent of the USB 3.0 interface, the speed of data exchange between devices has increased 10 times. Therefore, most modern external drives (hard drives, flash drives) are equipped with new version connector. Unfortunately, the transition to new standard not so fast for manufacturers system enclosures and motherboards that still integrate USB 2.0 ports to work with external devices, and if they provide USB 3.0 support, then in a limited number (one / two connectors). Of course, both interfaces are backward compatible, and if your computer only has USB 2.0 connectors, you can still connect to them. external device with USB 3.0 interface. But in this case, you will not be able to enjoy a significant advantage in the speed that the new technology provides.

You can check which version of USB ports are installed on your computer by its color. All USB 3.0 ports have a blue connector, while USB 2.0 ports are either white or black.

But what if you want to use the full potential of speed, but there was no corresponding port in the computer? There is a solution, of course.

Adding USB 3.0 to a desktop computer

For PCs, there are special expansion boards with USB 3.0 connectors.

Type in search engine inquiry « buy usb 3.0 controller» and you will see a large number of offers in online stores.

Before purchasing a controller, make sure that your motherboard has an appropriate free PCI Express (PCIe) X1 slot with a bandwidth of 5 Gb / s for it.

Some expansion cards are only powered by the slot, but there are others that use a special additional power cable (SATA or Molex).

If, for example, you take a controller with a Molex power connection, as shown in the figure below, then make sure that your power supply has a cable with this type of connection.

For those whose power supply contains only SATA cables, the way out of the situation is to purchase a special adapter from SATA to Molex.

If you want to bring USB 3.0 connectors to the front panel of the system unit, then you need a special adapter (portable panel), which is inserted into the 3.5-inch bay.

The adapter is connected with a 19-pin cable to the USB 3.0 controller or to the motherboard.

Connecting to the motherboard is advantageous in that there is no need to purchase an expansion card, but then your motherboard must support the USB 3.0 interface and have a 19-pin connector on board.

If the motherboard does not have such support, then to connect the front panel, you must have such a connector on the expansion card.

In this case good option there will be a purchase of a ready-made set of a controller and a portable adapter.

Adding a USB 3.0 interface to a laptop.

Installing USB 3.0 connectors in a laptop is possible using a special expansion card installed in the Express Card connector, which is very convenient, because. there is no need to tamper with the motherboard, as is the case with a desktop PC.

Attention! If you have old laptop with a PC Card connector (also called PCMCIA) or a Cardbus slot, then USB installation 3.0 interface will not be possible.

Also note the width of the Express Card slot. According to the form factor, they can be 34 mm. (ExpressCard/34) or 54 mm. (ExpressCard/54). The 34mm slot can only accept cards of the appropriate width, while the 54mm slot supports both 34mm and 54mm. cards. The picture below shows the difference between cards for ExpressCard/34, ExpressCard/54, and legacy PC Card slots:

After installing the board, turn on the computer / laptop. The system will notify that it has detected a new board, and will also offer to install the drivers automatically or from the disk that should have come with the expansion card. Select installation from disk, specifying the path to it. After installation, restart your computer and you can connect an external device to the installed connector.

Until recently, I quietly managed USB 2.0 ports on my devices, but with the purchase of a two-terabyte external hard drive Toshiba, my computer needed an upgrade.
The board has 7 ports - 5 external and 2 internal. Plugs into PCI-E X1/X16 slots on the motherboard.
Details in the review.

The box with the board was in the same package as the Toshiba drive. DHL-Express delivered safe and sound.
A cardboard box with good printing, but not an individual one, but for any similar expansion cards.




Complete set - the board itself, drivers on a CD, screws for fastening, power cable and user manual.


CD.


SATA to Molex adapter cable.


Cable with Molex connectors.


Consider the board itself.
Back side.




Facial.


Looks nice. The soldering is clean. Plate with connectors of solid thickness.
Items closer.
The VLI VL8912-Q7 chip acts as a hub.


datasheet
USB 3.0 controller NEC D720201
datasheet



Pm25L0512 - judging by an Internet search, this is a Single Operating Voltage Serial Flash Memory.


A capacitor is soldered next to each of the connectors.


This is what USB 3.0 connectors look like from the outside. Everything is neat.


Internal two USB 3.0 connectors and Molex power plug.


Install the board in the computer.
Motherboard Intel Dragontail Peak DP35DP.
I so rarely change anything inside that I mixed up the connector at first. In the PCI slots I have a TV Tuner and an internal Dial-Up modem.


Deciding that I no longer needed them, I removed them from the connectors, but immediately realized that the board was being installed in another slot.


Got the body back. 5 external USB.3 ports appeared on the back of the computer.


I checked two internal ports by connecting a USB flash drive via an extension cable. The drive is recognized, the contents are available. I did not test the speed, since I do not have USB 3.0 flash drives, because there were no suitable ports before.
Check external ports with external hard disk Toshiba Canvio Connect II 2TB.
But first, I'll tell you about installing the controller in the system.
Insert the CD into the drive.
Content.


We go to the folder for Windows.


Then to the first folder.


Runs setup and driver installation begins.


After installing the drivers, the Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 Host Controller appears in the system.
Device Manager.


Everest program
As we can see, it turns out that the architecture of the board is not entirely trivial: NEC 0720201 is actually a 4-port USB 3.0 controller, and a 4-port VLI VL812-Q7 hub is already included in one of its ports. A total of 7 ports, 3 directly, external, those that are farther from the mounting screw of the bar, and 4 through the hub.


Since you can charge your devices from USB ports, let's check what voltage and current can be obtained from one of them.
Idling.


Load switch in position 1A.


2A.


Somehow it's all very sad. I will not even charge 1 A devices from these ports.
Let's move on to testing the data transfer rate.
We connect external drive Toshiba Canvio Connect II 2TB and run some tests in CrystalDiskMark 5.


Now we connect the disk to USB 2.0 on the motherboard.


As you can see, the difference in data transfer rate is almost 4 times.
Since the device has not one port, but as many as 5 and even theoretically all 7 can be loaded, it would be nice to check if the simultaneous use of several ports reduces the transfer rate.
But, unfortunately, I have only one device with USB 3.0 available.
I'll try to connect two USB 2.0 flash drives Kingson Data Traveler 32 GB.
I copied the same video file from my computer's hard drive to external drives.
Toshiba hard drive.
I throw off from the disk to the hard drive. The maximum speed was up to 122 MB/s


Then from the hard drive to the disk. The maximum speed was up to 155 MB/s. But when preparing the review, it turned out that the screenshot was not taken.
Now I start copying to two flash drives.


At the same time I start copying to an external HDD (right window)


The speed has dropped. But not much. The difference in speed with flash drives is simply colossal.
And finally I tried to copy by connecting an external drive to the USB 2.0 connector.
At first, the speed jumped up to 100 MB/s.


But then it began to decline rapidly - 80-70-60 and stopped at 34 MB / s.
Which is in good agreement with the results of preliminary testing.
I can make a simple conclusion - the expansion board really works. Now I can move data at a speed three to four times faster than before.
For complete convenience, it would not hurt to attach an extension cable with leads to the front panel of the computer to the internal connectors.
That's all.
Thank you for your attention.

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